Where do I even begin? When I took up the mentor role, to be quite frank, I didn’t even feel like I knew what I was doing yet myself. I still reached out to my mentor consistently, whether it be asking for advice, trying to schedule classes, or just going to half-off apps at Applebee’s to de-stress. And now all of a sudden, I have someone who’s looking up to me, thinking that I know all there is to know about CMU and life in general. But I don’t… What I’ve learned so far is that life is a process – you’ll never know everything. Anyone who claims to has never tried hard enough to fail. And thus began the dysfunctional sisterly relationship between myself and Katie Heller – the best mentee in the game.

I met Katie on her LAS Competition day back in 2016. I couldn’t even tell you how many people came up and said, “Kendall, if you haven’t met Katie yet, you need to go do that right now.” They were right, it seemed like a perfect match. Draft day came, and Katie became my mentee, though she didn’t know it yet. Then began the tricky part. Once I picked Katie to be my mentee, I didn’t want it to be obvious that I was her mentor right away, so naturally I waited until the last possible second to do my reveal (I’m pretty sure that she’s still annoyed at me for causing all that suspense). While Katie was at school, I dropped off a gift her at her house, which also included a baseball with both my name and my mentor, Connor Ewald’s name. She actually left school early once she found out that her mentor had left something for her, and that’s when I got her text letting me know how excited she was to be starting this new journey.

Katie and I have a great relationship that has formed and strengthened over the last year. From mentor-mentee retreat, to the all-LAS picnic, to family tree nights at Applebee’s and everything in between, it became clear to me that I had made one of the best choices of my life by choosing Katie as my mentee. And our relationship is just going to continue to grow – my mentee and I just signed a lease together for next year, fire up! One thing that I love about LAS is that acquaintances turn into friends, and friends turn into family.

The last two years I have been a part of LAS in the D have been experiences that I will never forget. This trip was slightly different than last year, however. This year, I was on the LEAD Team for the trip. As a member of the LEAD Team, my job was to facilitate the trip for the underclassmen. This included facilitating leadership activities at Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, guiding group reflections at night, and volunteering with the group at Cass Community Social Services.

We began our service at the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, where my group of LAS students, along with my co-facilitator, Garrett Ritterhaus, was paired with a group of six JRLA students. When we first met with our groups, we were given a challenge of coming up with a team chant and participating in ice-breakers to get to know each other. Following this, our group went off to a classroom to teach the JRLA students about facilitation, which was a blast! We did two leadership activities – Gutter Ball and Carpet Maze. Gutter Ball is an activity in which the objective is to get a marble from one side of the room to the other by using small wooden “gutters.” For Carpet Maze, the objective is to get the whole team through a tape maze by following a specific predetermined pattern. What makes these activities so much fun doesn’t lie within the activities themselves, but rather in the frontloading and challenges that progress as the games go, as well as the debrief session at the end. Frontloading is essential to facilitating an activity well. To illustrate my point, imagine these two scenarios for Carpet Maze:

1) Your facilitator has designated a path through the maze that your team has to figure out and complete in order to successfully finish the activity;

2) It is 84 million B.C. You and your team are being chased through the jungle by a pack of wild dinosaurs. To successfully get through the jungle and outrun the dinosaurs, you must find a path through the jungle, avoiding all of the quicksand and lava. It’s impossible to hear anything because the dinosaurs are screeching so loudly behind you – therefore, you cannot talk! Help your teammates get through the maze as quickly as possible!

Obviously, the second scenario sounds like the more fun one. And as the game progresses, throwing in challenges can make the activity even better. For example: Oh no! The wind just blew quicksand into two of your teammates eyes! You must complete the rest of the course while wearing a blindfold! The JRLA students had a great time going through each of these activities, and it was amazing to see how much they were interested in learning about facilitation through the questions that they asked, and how substantially they contributed to the debrief discussions which tied the activity back to how to apply what they had learned through the questions What? So What? and Now What?

Following our visit to the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, we were taken to Quicken Loans for dinner, which I was looking forward to because I had great things about the company. We were given the opportunity to network with Quicken’s staff, as well as touring their offices. After dinner, we were then able to spend two hours at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

At night, we stayed at the DNR’s Outdoor Adventure Center in Downtown Detroit, just as we had done the previous year. The building itself has a very rich history, but was newly renovated in order to better serve its purpose for the DNR bringing “up north” to downtown Detroit. We were given time to relax and explore the building, which was then followed by and intensive debriefing session, led by myself and Garrett. I think that this was a great opportunity to not only hear the what the freshmen had to say about their experiences from the day, but enrich and expand upon the conversations by relating these experiences to each individual’s passions.

The next morning, LAS went to Cass Community Social Services. Cass is an organization that does many things for the community, but one thing that I think is absolutely wonderful is that Cass employs people who are homeless and people who have gotten out of prison, providing each of them with food, jobs, skill training, and places to stay, allowing people to get back on their feet. Among the service that my cohort did at Cass were making mats and shoes out of recycled tires, and working at the paper recycling center, and volunteering at the food and clothing donation center, which is where my group and I volunteered. Cass had just received a few very large donations, and it was apparent that there was a lot of work to be done. We sorted nonperishable items and clothing that were to be taken by Cass and given to those in need. I really enjoyed volunteering at the donation site because my group had a great bonding experience, we made our work a lot of fun, and we knew that we were making a difference.

The key to having a successful service trip is not only going into it with an open mind, but also remembering on a daily basis the service that has been done. So easily we allow ourselves to slip back into our daily routines and become comfortable with what is familiar to us instead of challenging ourselves to grow and continuing to give back. We need to remember our challenges, feelings, relationships, actions, and take-aways that have resulted from our service and continue to grow and challenge ourselves through a continuation of service. A service trip is not meant to be a memory of an experience we have had, but a constant reminder to put others before ourselves and continue to do more by giving back to others, and I am beyond blessed to have facilitated what is, arguably, the best LAS in the D trip to date.

“I want you to look back at this class and think ‘I enjoyed going to Moore Hall at 2PM.’” –Elizabeth Carlson.

In Elizabeth Carlson’s Communication in Leadership class, my cohort studied a variety of concepts including leadership theories, leadership and influence, leading groups, teams, and organizations, public leadership, leadership and diversity, and ethical issues in leadership.

We also participated in “fishbowl” discussion activities frequently. Fishbowls consisted of one small group of students in the class sitting in the middle of the classroom and having a self-guided discussion amongst themselves about a case study having to do with a particular area of leadership, as the rest of the class observed the conversation. When the group in the middle was finished speaking, the whole class split off into several small groups with each original member facilitating the new conversations. Following this, Professor Carlson would bring the class back together with a wrap-up discussion to consider different ideas that were brought forward from each separate conversation.

I really enjoyed this process, and I think that it significantly impacted my ability to apply topics that we had learned about in class to “real-life” scenarios. Through the fishbowls, our class was presented with such a variety of issues and a multitude of perspectives on how to solve each of them, which led to great conversations about leadership, personal values and beliefs, and challenging ourselves and our classmates. I believe that it is through these types of conversations that we are able to grow as individuals, and for that reason, I am very appreciative of the concepts and skills that I learned in COM 461L. With that being said, I can honestly say that I enjoyed going to More Hall at 2PM.

Year two. To kick off the season of my sophomore year on the CMU Women’s Club Softball team, I was appointed Treasurer. This meant that in addition to holding positions on the team as pitcher and first baseman, I was given a leadership position on our Executive Board. This year, my job – in addition to handling the team’s financial information – was to set a standard of hard work and dedication and to set an example of this standard to the rest of the team through my leadership.My greatest memory of the year occurred at Northern Illinois University during our last
tournament of the year, where we took third place overall. We were playing against the University of Missouri, the 8th ranked team in the nation. They were an offensive powerhouse – to put it into context, we had played them earlier in the tournament, where they finished the game scoring 16 runs on us. This game, though, would be different. I was pitching. Because of poor weather this spring prior to the tournament, it was my first time actually throwing outside since our fall season had ended, and it was now April. Needless to say, I was slightly nervous as I went through my pre-game warmup routine. As soon as I heard the umpire yell “Batter up!” however, my nerves calmed and I dialed in.

Long story short, I pitched one of the two best games of my entire life, and held Missouri scoreless through five and a half innings. As a part of this tournament, after each game both teams would vote for their opponent’s Most Valuable Player, presenting them with a ribbon in front of both of the teams. Because of my pitching performance, Missouri had voted me MVP of the game. The feeling that came from this honor was surreal. It was incredibly rewarding to know that people are able to see how I have progressed as both a player and as a person. I am so proud of my team, and how far we have come as an organization since my freshman year. I am blessed to be a part of the CMU Women’s Club Softball team and I look forward to our accomplishments in years to come.

It’s hard to believe that just three short years ago, I had never experienced Special Olympics, especially now since it is something that I have become very passionate about. I have participated in the last two Polar Plunges that have taken place on campus, raising money for Special Olympics Michigan. This year, I also became a Unified Sports partner, which has allowed me to play in intramural games alongside Special Olympic athletes. And, for the past two years, I have been a volunteer at the Special Olympic Winter Games.

My first year volunteering at the Games, I worked with Indoor Special Events, allowing me to meet the athletes one-on-one after they were done with their competitions for the day. This year, I worked on the other side of things. I was volunteering at the Snowshoe event. Snowshoe is the largest event at the Winter Games, as it allows each athlete to compete in separate placement heats which then place them into final rounds of competition.

One of the most memorable moments from the Games this year was during one of the very first Snowshoe races. I was stationed at the finish line, cheering on athletes during the races, congratulating them, and directing them to the awards ceremony after they had finished. As I sat at the finish line of the fourth or fifth heat of the day, I noticed a familiar face racing toward me. It was King Sam, one of the athletes that I had gotten to know pretty well the previous year while I was working at Indoor Special Events. About halfway through the race, I noticed
that King Sam saw me, and by the look on his face, it was instantly apparent that he remembered me from last year. The moment Sam crossed the finish line, I was immediately given the largest hug I’ve received in a while, and was greeted with, “Hey! What are you doing out here? You’re supposed to be inside like last time aren’t you?” I told Sam that I had a different job this year, and that I would be taking him to the awards ceremony now that he had finished his race. Watching King Sam stand up on the podium and smile down at me while he was getting his medal placed around his neck is a feeling that I hope I never forget.

There are so many moments like this that happen within Special Olympics. The people – both athletes and volunteers – who come to the Games each year, have had such a tremendous impact on me. This is a community that, because of the amount of genuine love and inclusiveness, I forever hope to stay a part of.

My role in the CMU Student Government Association (SGA) began the summer before returning to Central for my Sophomore year. I was at home playing basketball in my driveway with my sister when I got a phone call from a phone number that I did not recognize. Naturally, I didn’t answer it. About five minutes later, I received a text message explaining that the caller was the SGA President Ian Elliott, and he was looking for someone to fill the role of Executive Secretary at SGA. He had gotten my name from a professor at CMU – to whom I am very grateful – who believed that I would be a good fit for the job. Eagerly, I agreed, and I soon began my duties. My responsibilities and experiences as Executive Secretary included the following:

Coordinated meetings between CMU faculty and the SGA President

Managed the SGA President’s and Vice President’s calendars

Attended weekly Executive Council meetings

Took minutes for the SGA Senate

Recruited new students to become members of the SGA Senate

Assisted with unexpected transition between SGA presidents

Held bi-weekly office hours to assist members of SGA as well as other CMU students

Not only did I enjoy my work with SGA, but the people that I worked with were phenomenal as well. I hope, next year, to continue my work within the organization under the newly elected Owens-Sturvist Administration.

I’ll be honest, I don’t always consider this question as much as I would like to. But Philosophy 118L with Gary Fuller never failed to get mind to work. This class, largely discussion based, was one of the most interesting classes that I have ever taken. It is relatively safe to say that everyone believes what they believe. But have we ever intentionally stopped to consider why we believe it? What factors into our thought processes? How do we know what is inherently right or inherently wrong? Are there any moral exceptions to what is typically considered “right”?

These are questions that, to be completely honest, I hadn’t really considered before beginning my journey at CMU. Coming from a small town, everyone does similar things and shares similar values. What is “right” has always seemed “right.” Philosophy challenged that for me. I found myself regularly analyzing a variety of moral problems – from abortion to capital punishment, torture to terrorism, affirmative action and more. Some of the conversations that we held in class led me to reconsider my stance on certain issues, while other conversations reinforced my beliefs. Being challenged in our beliefs, I firmly believe, is one of the best ways to truly discover ourselves. I think that PHL 118L has encouraged me, in a positive way, to challenge myself and others around me, to encourage contemplation and conversation, and to always remain open to hearing all the sides of a story.